Attosecond pulse synthesis and arbitrary waveform generation with cascaded harmonics of an injection‐seeded high‐power Q‐switched Nd:YAG laser

• Published in: Laser physics letters 2012-03, Vol.9 (3), p.212-218, Article 212
• Main Authors: Chen, W.‐J., Wang, H.‐Z., Lin, R.‐Y., Lee, C.‐K., Pan, C.‐L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: attosecond; carrier envelope phase; Doped-insulator lasers and other solid state lasers; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); harmonic; Lasers; Nonlinear optics; Optics; Physics; sub‐cycle; Ultrafast processes; optical pulse generation and pulse compression; waveform
• ISSN: 1612-2011; 1612-202X; 1612-202X
• DOI: 10.1002/lapl.201110117

We propose a new scheme of attosecond pulse generation by starting from a narrow‐band transform‐limited high‐power solid‐state laser and phase lock the fundamental and its first four cascaded harmonics generated by the second‐order nonlinear optical processes. The relative phase among the optical fields of the harmonics can be maintained a constant at least for thousands of nanosecond pulses. The worst‐case relative phase fluctuation is 0.04π rad. It is shown that sub‐single‐cycle (∼0.37 cycle) sub‐femtosecond (360 attosecond) pulses with carrier‐envelope phase (CEP) control can be generated in this manner. The peak intensity of each pulse exceeds 1014 W/cm2 when it is focused to a spot size of 20 µm. We also demonstrate synthesis of square and saw‐tooth waveforms. (© 2012 by Astro Ltd., Published exclusively by WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA) (© 2011 by Astro Ltd., Published exclusively by WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA)